


Earth to Wyrmferr and Back and Forth Again

by Vita_sine_fantasy_mors_est



Series: Doorway Stories [1]
Category: Wayward Children Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Disabled Character, F/F, Magic, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 01:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11864274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vita_sine_fantasy_mors_est/pseuds/Vita_sine_fantasy_mors_est
Summary: Maria Walters accidentally falls out of the world she was in, called Wyrmferr back to Earth, and her girlfriend comes to Earth looking for her to bring her back, because Wyrmferr doesn't want to let Maria go, and gets help from the students at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children





	Earth to Wyrmferr and Back and Forth Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spoke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/gifts).



> This is my first ever long fic, and the first one I've ever written down with dialogue, so apologies for the formatting. I hope you like this piece, and I hope I did all the characters justice. If anyone sees anything that looks wrong, please let me know. I made up all the Kansas towns mentioned, as far as I know. I admit I know very little about prosthetic limbs, and I apologize if I've completely messed up in how I deal with them. If I've unintentionally offended anyone with my depiction, I'm very sorry and please let me know. Comments are the best and commenters get virtual hugs. *hugs* Enjoy!!

Maria Walters had had about $80 on her when she had found the door, because she'd been trying to get two states over to where her only non-straight friend lived for the weekend. She'd been trying to find somewhere in the train station that a nervous looking dark haired 15-year-old girl with blue eyes, carrying a duffel bag wearing work boots, shorts, and a slightly grungy t-shirt wouldn't get leered at too much. 

Eventually she found a door with a sign proclaiming it to be "The Fantasy Cave" "new, used, and rare books". She pushed the door open and entered a dimly lit room with more bookshelves than it seemed should fit all shoved in, mostly in rows, but not entirely, with some at odd angles. Hoisting her duffel bag up so it was less likely to knock anything over, Maria made her way to the first set of stacks, checking her watch as she went. She had missed the train she'd originally wanted to take, and she had about an hour until the next one on the right line, with the right destination. She browsed the stacks for a while, but eventually had to go in search of a bathroom, which she found after a little difficulty. Unfortunately, she'd gotten herself a bit turned around from where she had come from, and the store seemed larger from this angle. Maria started around the edge of the store, hoping to spot the end display of a bookcase she recognized, and her eye caught on a small door in the wall, the top of which was just at eye level, and said "Come away to home" in gold letters. Maria stared at the door, not understanding what it meant, or where it could lead to, since there was a store right next to the bookstore, but she took a deep breath and pushed the door open, to see a very long hallway stretching in front of her. 

"Ohh-kay," she said to herself, then remembered that she didn't tell her friend she was coming, and if by whatever chance she ended up back at near home, there was a pretty good chance she could sneak out again and have some time with her friend, and if she ended up somewhere else, she'd just take things as they came. Maria crouched, stepped through the door, and pulled it closed behind her as she straightened up. 

The world, named Wyrmferr, as she found out later, that Maria Walters had found herself in reminded her of steampunk books she had read, until it just started feeling like home, in a way that Earth never had, with its incredibly complicated rules for everything, that occasionally, more often in the case of social interaction, didn't always make a ton of sense. This world had very strict rules, but if and once you followed the rules, you actually had a lot of freedom inside the boundaries of the rules. Especially since most of the rules were in place to make sure everyone was treated fairly and got what they needed. 

Maria also appreciated the world's tolerant and not a big deal approach to LGBTQA+ people, which was much better than what she had encountered in her, admittedly limited experience on Earth, well, limited in scope and sample size with which to make an accurate prediction. She had lived fifteen years on Earth with a family that didn't care much about what she did with relationships, as long as she was straight and didn't get pregnant, but actually showed signs of being in a relationship with a guy, which worked out in the not getting pregnant part, since she was asexual and sex repulsed, but she was also romantically attracted to girls, which she had been hiding for the last two years she was on Earth. To her great delight and utter amazement, there was no pressure at all on this world to be anything other than she was, and once she had stopped being worried about people would think, and her brain would actually listen when she told it that no one would care, she didn't try to hide it anymore. 

It was amazing, well, everything in this world was amazing, but one of the things she appreciated the most, on a quality of life scale, was that she was able to learn how to date- how to date girls- in a place where it was normal, and where no one would fault her for not being used to it or being awkward. While she sometimes missed Earth things, especially the Internet, she wouldn't give up this world, with its steam powered electricity, slightly odd-looking cars, mechanical several person flying machines, minor healing magics, and basically magical libraries that were pretty good substitutes for the Internet. 

It would also be nice if they could make wood houses work, as stone ones tended to be a bit damp and drafty, but only a little bit, and only because she was used to something else. Wood didn't work because of the fires that were needed to generate all the steam power. Luckily in Blackmere, and the other cities, as well as in some smaller towns, they used a clean fuel that didn't pollute the atmosphere. 

But by far the best part of this world was her girlfriend Alianna du Neeras, who wasn't royalty (the name was just a custom for a section of the people of Blackmere). She had met Alianna back when she was still, even after almost a month, really trying to find a door back to Earth, because everything was new and most things were confusing and she didn't know that many people yet, and she wasn’t very good at making friends, and she felt incredibly out of place, which did not help, but she hadn't been able to find a door. Later, when she talked about it with Alianna and Alianna's family, she had learned that travelers from other worlds weren't uncommon and if they were obviously just passing through, then the world would let them find their doors, but if they were from Earth, then the only reason they were in this world was that they were meant to be here, so the world would try to keep them until they found their place and felt comfortable in this world, which was what had happened to Maria.

 

Maria regretted opening the door in the wall she had thought was the storeroom of the bookstore as soon as she had done so, because as soon as she stepped through it, she landed in a field, in a place that she could instantly identify as being on Earth, not on Wyrmferr. She swore under her breath, and took stock of the situation: she was wearing mostly normal looking clothes (to an Earth person), except for the fancy coat and that everything looked a bit old fashioned and fancy, and she was standing in the middle of a meadow and the sun was high in the sky, and it was hot, and she wasn't hurt, but all she had on her was some money from Blackmere that wouldn't be any good here. She turned in a circle, trying to see if she could spot any buildings or signs of civilization, and saw what looked like a house, or at least a building, far off, almost on the edge of her vision. 

Checking everywhere around her to make sure that the door wasn't hiding, she found no door, and so started walking in the direction of the far-off building. She tried to think as hard as she could, but wasn't coming up with much. She didn't know where she was, and she couldn't, and didn't want to go back to her family, but she couldn't stay here, even though it seemed the most likely place for the door to reappear. She was also incredibly angry at herself for not checking that she was opening the right door for the storeroom she was supposed to be getting books from to restock the shelves of the bookstore she was temporarily working in, and for messing up the best thing she'd ever had, and her first real chance at having a life the way she could live the way she wanted to. Maria hoped desperately that Alianna wouldn't be too freaked out and worried, and also that she wouldn't think Maria had gone through a door to get away from her and Blackmere, which was very not true. 

She then realized that she had to have some explanation for her clothes and why she was there and where she came from. She stopped for a second to take off her coat, and turn it inside out, and then put it back on to hide her fancy shirt and jacket. Her pants were ok, and no one would look at her shoes that carefully. Maria knew she was trying to occupy her mind so that it wouldn't think about what Alianna had said about what she knew about how the doors worked, which wasn't much, but wasn't comforting at all.

 

Maria's boss was surprised when Maria still hadn't come back from the storeroom after almost 5 minutes, so she popped out from behind the desk to go check on her and make sure everything was ok. She knew almost instantly what had happened when she saw the door that wasn't supposed to be there, the one next to the storeroom and also unmarked. (The storeroom door was unmarked to stop people from trying to sneak into it, as there were a handful of doors in the back, and the time it took the person to try several of the doors was enough time for someone to notice the person (and probably hear them, since all the doors but one were locked all the time) and stop them. The shop owner knew that Maria wasn't likely to just leave without saying anything, especially since she seemed so happy, so she must have unlocked the door and stepped through intending to close it behind her as quickly as possible so people wouldn't come back to see what she was doing, and by the time she stepped through it was too late. The shop owner, whose name was Diana, went over to the storeroom, grabbed the books that Maria had gone to grab, and went back to the front to send a message to Alianna.

Residents of Blackmere sent messages using magical paper airplanes made of a really thin metal that still took ink well, and took about 1/2 the time to get to a destination as it would take to walk there, well, less than 1/2 the time. Alianna was oiling the finger joints on her prosthetic arm because they had felt sticky when she was practicing her swordsmanship. All residents of Blackmere knew self-defense and how to use a sword to defend themselves in the event of an attack by the evil mechanical dragons, but the only people who kept up more than a basic proficiency with the sword, and occasionally other weapons, often involving fire or magic, were the knights whose job it was to fight the dragons and keep them away from cities and towns, and people in general. Alianna was curious, and a tiny bit worried when her mother came to the doorway of the practice room and handed Alianna a message airplane. 

"It's from the bookshop, the one Maria works at", said her mom. 

"I hope everything's ok," replied Alianna, worriedly.

“I'm sure everything's fine and it's just a slight change of plans or something”, her mom said soothingly, but it did nothing for Alianna’s nerves. Alianna pulled the airplane with some difficulty, as she only had one hand at the moment, but she managed to hold it between her knees and pull it open with the fingers of her right hand, and then she folded it flat so she could read the message. As she read, her face drew into a worried frown and her eyes started to get a bit wet.

"Ali baby, what's wrong?" asked her mother. 

"Maria seems to have accidentally went through a door to another world instead of the storeroom. Diana, the bookstore owner, says that the doors looked quite similar, and it was definitely an accident, because Maria wouldn't leave without any notice, and she seemed really happy here. Diana thinks she probably unlocked the door and went through it as quickly as possible, thinking it was the storeroom and not wanting anyone to get curious and come back to see what she was doing; they've had problems with people trying to get into the storeroom recently, and she probably wasn't even paying attention to what she was doing until she went to close the door and, probably, found it gone, and found herself somewhere." 

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, that's awful! I hope she didn't end up anywhere nasty."

"Mom, I think even Earth would qualify as nasty, given what she's said about it, at least the area she's from." 

"Come on, we'll go to the book-house and see if there's any information about trying to find people that have accidentally gone through doors."

"Even if there was a way, we don't know where she's gone," said Alianna, trying not to whine. 

"The most likely occurrence is that she's ended up back on Earth because there isn't more than one world that fits each person well enough for a door to open to that world. And, doors apparently do try to bring people back to wherever they were brought from, but as this is a different door than Maria came here through, that part might not work as well."

Alianna's mom had a pensive look on her face, and then said cautiously, "There's someone I've heard of who's supposed to be an expert on doors to other worlds, well as much of an expert as you can be, she might be able to help us, and tell us if the rumors I've heard of this world being able to direct people through the right doors to where they want to go, or not wanting to let people who come here leave without a fight are true." 

"Really," asked Alianna, "I've never heard those rumors, but I would love it so much if they were true!!!" 

"Let's go find out," said her mom. "How much time do you need to finish fixing your arm?" 

"I can finish later, it's only a minor thing, just give me a second to put everything back together, clean up, and put clean clothes on."  
Alianna was surprised when instead of going to the car, her mom went over and opened the door of the air-car, the mechanical flying machine the people of Blackmere, and much of Wyrmferr used to get places really fast, or for longer journeys. Her mom must have seen the slightly confused expression on Alianna's face because she smiled at her daughter and said "It's best if we don't waste any time. Fewer opportunities for things to go wrong or be more complicated if we work as quickly as possible." Alianna hopped in next to her mom and the two sped through the air to the outskirts of Blackmere, to an academic complex where a group of scholars lived away from most of the hustle and bustle of the city. Alianna's mom strode up to the door and knocked on it firmly, but not harshly.  
The door was opened almost instantly by a young man with dark hair and brown eyes wearing a loose shirt and pants who said, "How can I help you ma'am?" 

"We need to speak to Master Scholar Selina Kylor, as soon as possible." 

"Who should I say is asking?” 

"Marian du Neeras and her daughter." 

"I'll be just a moment, please come in and sit down." 

The young man led them down the hallway a bit to a room scattered with chairs and small couches. "Please, make yourselves comfortable. When the young man came back several minutes later, he was accompanied by an older woman in long black robes with a purple stripe on the edges whom he introduced as Master Scholar Selina Kylor. 

"Please call me Selina," she said and Alianna thought that she had a very nice voice, not at all condescending or distant, but very warm and friendly. 

"Marian, I know whatever you are here for is urgent, but, how are you? I haven't seen you in ages!" 

At her words, Alianna's brain coughed up a vague memory of her mother and a younger looking Master Scholar Kylor sitting in the living room and talking and tinkering with some piece of machinery. 

"It's lovely to see you Selina, and I'm very well, thank you. You've met my daughter Alianna I think, but it was some time ago." 

Selina extended her hand to Alianna, "It's a pleasure to see you again Alianna. I have a feeling that the problem you are here about concerns you in some way (not that I think you're in trouble), but I'm guessing your mother probably wouldn't have brought you if you didn't need my help and only she did." Alianna nodded, and Selina replied,

"Would you like to go into my office, or would it be easier to just stay here?" 

"It's probably going to take some explaining, so we should probably go to your office Master -" 

"Selina," the older woman interrupted kindly. 

"Thank you, Selina." 

"Of course. Come with me, I'm sure we can figure out whatever the problem is." 

Once they got to Selina's large, but cozy office, Selina said "What do you need my help with, generally?" 

"The doors to other worlds." 

"Ahh, ok, then you've come to the right place." Selina smiled and Alianna felt better in spite of herself and was even able to smile back a bit. 

"So, what do you need? You don't need to start at the beginning unless you think I need all of the background." 

Alianna took a breath and said, as calmly as she could, "My girlfriend came here through a door from Earth, and earlier this morning she accidentally fell back through a door back to Earth, and it really was an accident, I'm sure of it, because she was really happy here and wasn't on Earth and it wasn't the same door she came through to get here." Alianna took a deep breath and tried to get herself under control. 

Selina asked gently, "Do you know how she accidentally went through the door back to Earth? and do you know where on Earth she is from, because that will be important for finding her?" 

"She works at a bookstore and she was going back to the storeroom to restock some of the shelves, and the storeroom isn't labeled because they've had problems with people trying to get back there and take books, and a door appeared in the wall just before the storeroom door and it looked the same, according to the bookstore owner, who saw the door, and the employees have been trying not to be seen going into the storeroom so no one follows them, so she probably wasn’t paying attention to what was behind the door, and then she probably shut it before she realized what had happened. And she lives-lived, whatever, in a town called Egment, Kansas." 

Selina looked thoughtful, "Ok, one more big question, and then we can talk about options: what is your girlfriend likely to do when she realizes what's happened? Is she more likely to stay where she ended up in case the door comes back, or is she more likely to try to figure out where she is and then figure out a plan and not count on the door coming back in that spot soon?" 

Alianna thought for a couple seconds and then said, "I think she's probably more likely to try and go figure out where she is, and maybe, potentially, try to get back to where she was when she found the first door, maybe. She does know enough about the doors to not count it turning up again soon." 

"Ok," Selina said. "we have two options, but I’m only going to mention the first one so that you know it exists. First: this world doesn't like losing people that come to it, so there's a decent chance she'll find another door soon, because this world wants her to come back, and second: there is a way, from one town on Wyrmferr, to be able to control where you want to end up when going through a door, and it's a slightly different kind of door, it's more for taking people places than the usual, unexpected journey to a world that fits you really well, and with that door, you can follow a recent door's path and end up near, actually near, where the person who last went through a door ended up. There is also some magic I can do that will lead a person who goes through this door to something, or someone that might be able to best help them in whatever they're trying to do." 

Marian cut in, "But is it guaranteed that you’ll have a door back if you go through this door?" 

"People have been retrieved multiple times from other world through this door, and each time a door back has appeared, but it can take some time, sometimes days, for a door to appear." 

Alianna asked "How does the door know when the person has finished whatever they came through this special door to do?" 

"Usually these things don't take all that long, so it's more a matter of waiting for another door, but there is a way to signal this special door- mind you, everything I've been saying only works on this one door in this one town- and the signal will cause a door to appear near you sometime soon." 

Alianna replied, "And people from Wyrmferr have been to earth and haven't had any problems with being able to live there?" 

"Nope, no problems besides the obvious being-a-new-person-in-a-strange-place problems. The language is even somehow understandable to us." 

"We have no idea why?" asked Alianna. 

"No idea.” 

“And our magic works on earth?" 

"Yep, this stuff does. One important thing, you can't bring anything with you, which does sort of impose a time limit, of a sort." 

Alianna said, "I'll go with this option. What should I say if people ask what I'm doing or where I came from or anything?" 

"Anything as long as you don't give away that there are other worlds. I have one final question: do you know where the gate that your girlfriend originally came here through was on Earth?" 

"In a bookstore in a train station in a place called Toprocks in Kansas." 

"Ok, hopefully that's not too far away from where you end up. And, just so you know and no one gives you weird looks, Topeka, not Toprocks is the capital city of Kansas-" 

Alianna cut in politely, "I know that much about the United States." 

"Sorry, do you want to go now, or is there anything you need to do first?" 

Marian said, "Ali, yes, you can go now, that's fine with me." 

"Thanks Mama." 

Selina said, "I just need to gather a couple things, and then we'll be off. It only takes about an hour to get to the town where the door is. Marian, you can come for this part if you want." 

"Definitely," Marian replied. 

Alianna was nervous and excited during the journey to the town, trying to remember everything she knew about Earth. When they got to where the door was, Selina made a quick stop to pick up a couple things at a shop next door, and handed them to Alianna. 

"This," Selina said, pointing to a necklace with a compass dial charm done in gold and some kind of dark metal or precious stone, "will direct you to somewhere that can help you. And this," she said, "will allow me to paint a temporary sigil on you that will tell the door to take you near where the last person to go through a door went. If you could pull aside the top of your tunic, I'm going to draw a sigil on your skin that will get you near where your girlfriend ended up, and if you touch a finger to the dot at the middle, you’ll see when I’m finished, that will send out the signal that you’re ready to come home.”

 

 

Alianna pulled the edge of her shirt back and Selina drew a beautiful, curling symbol on Alianna's collarbone. 

"There we go, let's get a move on," Selina said when she had finished. 

They walked over to the door and Selina tapped the mark on Alianna's skin once with some kind of instrument, and then tapped the door frame, and said, "Everything's all ready. Be careful, be safe, and good luck!!" 

"Good luck my baby" Marian said quietly, wrapping Alianna in a quick hug. 

Alianna smiled and said, "I'll see you all soon", and stepped through the door and closed it behind her. She found herself in a field of grass and flowers, with a few scattered trees, and what looked like a building in the distance. She felt lopsided and looked down at herself to realize that her prosthetic arm was missing, and the short sleeve of her shirt was almost flat against her shoulder where her arm should have been. 

"Ok, that's not good, but Selina did say I wasn't allowed to bring anything, so maybe the door magic included my prosthetic for whatever reason," she thought to herself. Alianna felt a bit lost without it nearby, but pulled herself together and took a second to think. She felt a pull toward the building, and was confused for a second until she realized it was coming from the compass necklace. She muttered "here we go", and headed off towards the building. 

It was not quite as far away as it looked, and when she got close, she saw what looked like a wide dirt track leading up to the front of the building, which had a sign in front of it, proclaiming it to be "Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children". This didn't really sound all that promising, or what Alianna was really looking for, but, she reasoned, the sign couldn't exactly say "Eleanor West's Home for Children Who Have Gone through Doors to Other Worlds and Come Back", or people would think Eleanor West, whoever she was, was insane. Alianna also trusted Selina Kylor and the magic, so she went up to the front door of the house and knocked firmly twice. 

It was opened in short order by a boy several years older than Alianna herself, and who probably the most beautiful boy Alianna had ever seen, and she wasn't even attracted to boys. He had perfect looking light brown skin, black hair, and brown eyes He looked at her a little bit quizzically and said, 

"Can I help you? I'm Kade by the way. Would you like to come in?" 

"Yes please, “Alianna replied, avoiding for the moment, his first question. She wasn't entirely sure how to ask if the boy, Kade, knew how to find someone who had fallen through a door accidentally. Kade opened the door wider and ushered Alianna in. 

Kade asked, "How can we help you? Are you lost?" 

Alianna extended her hand to Kade, “I’m Alianna.” 

” Nice to meet you Alianna,” Kade replied. 

Alianna then said, a little bit hesitantly, "I'm not lost, I'm uh, looking for someone from around here, I think, where are we, what town is this place in?" 

“We’re in Grantville, Kansas, just outside Topeka,” Kade replied. 

"Oh, ok. I'm looking for someone originally from around here, who was away for a while, and is now back here, unexpectedly." 

Kade smiled, and said, "Did the person you're looking for go through a door to get here?" 

"She accidentally fell through a door, actually." 

"And you're not sure where she is, but you thought we could help? I'm guessing you're not from Earth." 

"I'm not, and I don't know where she is, but I know where she's likely to go to try and find a door back, and I was directed to go here by some magic that thought you would be the most useful thing for me." 

"Magic, real magic?" 

"Yeah, we have real magic on our world. Not a ton, but in specific areas. It's awesome!" 

Kade said, "I'm so sorry, you probably want to see Eleanor so you can go find your... friend?" 

"Girlfriend actually, and I don't really care who I talk to as long as someone can help." 

"Well, Eleanor's the only real adult here, and I'm guessing you're going to need some transportation to somewhere. You said you think you know where your girlfriend is probably headed?" 

"Yeah, she's probably going to the Toprocks train station, but I'm not sure where she came out the door from my world, so I'm not sure how long it'll take her to get to the train station, that was where she found the door to my world."

"This is sort of an awkward question, but does your girlfriend fit in better-" 

"Yes, she didn't fit in well on Earth, if that's what you're asking." 

Kade looked thoughtful, "Doors that open back to a world someone was born in don't usually appear randomly when the person is happier where they are now, but I think it happens sometimes? Eleanor should be able to give you a better idea of where the door your girlfriend fell through is likely to have dropped her. How long was your girlfriend in your world? What's your world called?" 

"My world is called Wyrmferr, and my girlfriend, Maria, was in my world for 4 months." 

Kade looked thoughtful again, "It's possible that the door appeared as a 'are you sure you want to stay here, you could still come home' door, I'm not sure. Let's go find Eleanor." 

"Where is everyone else? I'm assuming there are more people here than just you." 

"Everyone's in class. I wasn't feeling well this morning, so I got excused for the day, and there wasn't anyone else around who might have heard your knock.”  
As they walked to Eleanor’s office, Alianna was ridiculously glad Kade hadn’t commented on her having a girlfriend, a reaction she was used to in Blackmere, but not, she presumed from what Maria had said, all that common in large parts of the United States. And also, that he hadn’t commented on the jacket she had tied around her waist, or the long skirt she was wearing, which from what Maria had told her, were not normal clothes when it was this warm.

 

Kade knocked on Eleanor's office door, and said "Eleanor, we have a guest who is in need of your assistance and knowledge." There were sounds from inside the room of a chair being pushed back, and the sound of footsteps, and then a slightly strangely dressed older woman opened the door. 

"Hello dear, I'm Eleanor West. What can I do for you?" 

Alianna extended her hand and shook Eleanor's firmly. "It’s lovely to meet you Ms. West. I'm Alianna du Neeras and I'm trying to find my girlfriend. She's from earth originally, but she came through a door and ended up in Blackmere, my city, on Wyrmferr, but she accidentally went through a door back to here, and I want to bring her back home. She didn't want to come back here, and wasn't planning to, I'm positive." 

"It's very nice to meet you Alianna, and please call me Eleanor, and I do believe you about your girlfriend wanting to stay on Wyrmferr, was it?” 

Alianna nodded. “Come in, come in. Kade, could you get me Jack please, without Jill?” 

“Course Eleanor.” 

"Who's Jack, and who's Jill?" Alianna asked.

"Jack is another one of the students here, and Jill is her sister, they spend most of their time together, and Jack looks after Jill, because she doesn't always make the best choices. So, is this more of a rescue or more of a simple retrieval? Finding your girlfriend, I mean." 

"Probably a retrieval, but she might have gotten into trouble. She did imply, at least once that walking around alone, and traveling alone aren't the safest things for a girl our age." 

"Yes, that is true." Eleanor asked Alianna about Blackmere and Wyrmferr in general, until Kade came back accompanied by a girl in what Alianna thought were called pants, and a button up shirt and rimmed glasses. 

Kade gestured at Alianna, "Alianna, this is Jack, Jack, this is Alianna." 

"It's so nice to meet you Jack!" Alianna said as she stretched out her hand. 

Jack said, "I don't do handshakes, really, but it's a privilege to meet you Alianna." 

Jack and Kade came in and sat down, and Eleanor said, "Alright Alianna, why don't you start from the beginning, when your girlfriend accidentally came through the doorway back here." 

Alianna related the story, almost in its entirety, but she left out some bits about conversations and things she didn't think were really relevant. When Alianna had finished, Eleanor said, “The Toprocks train station isn’t that far away, I can drive up to the train station and look for your girlfriend, and you, Jack, and Kade can comb the area between here and the train station. Kade, I’ll give you a cell phone so you can contact me if you find, what’s her name?” 

“Maria” 

“Ok, if you find Maria, call me, and if I find her I’ll call you. Kade, are you feeling up to this, because I can give the phone to Jack if you’re not up to going. And you should all get some food before you leave, and Alianna, you should get some normal Earth clothes before you go out, Kade can help you with that.” 

Kade smiled at Eleanor, and said “Yes, Eleanor, I’m up to doing this, and Alianna, if you come with me, I can get you clothes so you don’t stand out as much while the others get some food ready.” 

Jack jumped in to say, “I’ll walk with you until you get to Kade’s room, and then go see about food.”

 

Jack and Kade each took one side of Alianna, and soon after they had left Eleanor's office, a girl who looked to be of Japanese descent with two black pigtails seemed to pop out of a door and came over to the three of them. 

Quickly, Jack said, “I’ll go talk to the cook.” 

The new girl almost bounced toward them, asking "Kade, who's this, Ely-Eleanor didn't say we were getting a new student today, we just got Nancy the day before yesterday. Hi, I'm Sumi, is it hard living with only one arm?" 

Alianna was a bit stunned by the girl's energy, and tried not to stare at her as Kade responded, "Sumi, this is Alianna, she's trying to find her girlfriend who accidentally fell back here through a door, we're going to get clothes and then me, Jack, Eleanor, and Alianna are going to go look for Alianna's girlfriend." 

Sumi turned toward Alianna, "You're from another world?" 

"Yeah, it's called Wyrmferr and it's amazing, and I have a prosthetic arm, but it didn't make it through the special door I took to come here, for whatever reason. I was born with only one arm." 

Sumi smiled, and said “I’m going to get Nancy.” 

Jack seemed to appear from nowhere, and said, “The cook is getting some food ready so we can eat before we leave. 

As they continued to walk along the hallway, someone said behind them, “Look, it’s a freak show!” Alianna felt herself freeze, Kade, involuntarily, it seemed, squeezed her hand, and Jack wheeled around to glare at the girl. 

Alianna and Kade turned around just as Jack said, “Loriel, everyone’s different and “weird” (Alianna could hear the scorn on the word weird) here. This is Alianna du Neeras and she’s a guest of ours for a bit while she looks for someone. And stop calling Kade a freak, otherwise I’m going to report you to Eleanor again, and you’ll be in serious trouble.” 

Kade added, “Loriel, please don’t call anyone a freak, it’s really not nice. People missing limbs doesn’t make them “freaks”, it makes them them, especially if they were just born without that limb, and while it’s unusual, it’s actually more normal and common than people being here, or having gone through doors.”

 

As they continued walking Jack said, "Ignore Loriel, she's just angry and is a bit scared of people who are different from her or people/things she doesn't understand. Everyone thinks I'm weird because my worldview is quite different than most peoples-" 

Kade cut in "and sometimes you're much blunter than most people would be." 

"Yeah" replied Jack, nonchalantly. 

Kade added, "I'm transgender, you probably have a different word for it on Wyrmferr." 

"Yeah, we do have another word for it, but I remember Maria explaining what transgender meant to me when she asked me if people in Blackmere, my city, are generally accepting of LGBTQA+ people, and I had to ask her what those letters meant." 

Kade nodded and said, "Loriel doesn't understand trans people and doesn't really want to try. Here we are, let's get you some proper Earth clothing." Kade stopped at a door and unlocked it, leading Alianna and Jack inside. 

"Jack, you can stay if you want." 

"I will, thank you Kade." 

"Alianna, would you prefer shorts- short pants or a skirt, or I might have some leggings- they're like thinner pants."

"Shorts, please." 

"I'll get you a couple shirts and pairs of shorts to try, and you can see what you like." 

Jack said quietly, "Kade is really good as guessing what size clothing people need, and what style they might want." 

A little while later, Alianna had a pair of shorts and two shirts that she liked, and Kade said he could find her more if she ended up staying longer. 

“Let me know if anything doesn't fit, or if you don't like it. I can also alter the sleeves if you don't like the way they look." 

"The sleeves are fine. Thank you so much Kade!!" 

Kade said, "I'll keep your other stuff here, it's probably the safest place for it that wouldn't be awkward like storing them in Eleanor's office. Now, let's go see what kind of food they’ve put out." 

Jack said, “I’m not really hungry, I’ll go talk to Eleanor and figure out our plan and get anything we might need, and I’ll see you in a bit.”  
Kade led Alianna, in her new clothes, to the dining room, where there was a very small buffet set up. 

"Take a plate and grab whatever you want, and don't worry about taking too much, you can't." 

Alianna recognized a decent amount of the food, so she took some of what she recognized and left alone anything she didn't. As she was sitting down, Sumi came back, dragging another girl in a flowing white long sleeved shirt and long black pants, whose startling white hair had five streaks of black in it, and the two came over to the table. 

Sumi said, "You got new clothes, they look nice. This is Nancy, she just got here two days ago. Nancy, this is Alianna. Hi Kade. Where'd Jack run off to?" 

The girl, Nancy, said hi to Alianna and Kade and sat down across from Alianna while Kade told Sumi that Jack had gone to check on preparations. 

Nancy said quietly to Alianna, "It's ok if you're feeling really overwhelmed, I'm still feeling it a bit, but it does get better. I hope no one's tried to ask you about world classification or what compass direction your world is on, because it's all so confusing and complicated." 

Alianna shook her head, and asked "compass direction?" 

"Part of the system we use on earth to classify worlds. Don't ask." 

Alianna smiled at Nancy. "What was your world like, the one you went to?" 

Nancy talked about her world while Alianna ate, and then Kade talked about Prism, in between eating, and Sumi talked about Confection and stole small pieces of food from Kade's plate, and then Jack came back and talked the Moors and ate a little bit. 

When everyone had finished eating, Jack said, "Eleanor's going to drive to the train station and check it out, we’re going to go comb the smaller roads leading to the train station, and stay away from larger roads and more populated areas because I have a feeling, and Eleanor agrees, that Maria, especially if she was wearing a tunic and trousers, would probably stay away from people who might ask questions about the fifteen year old girl in the out of place clothes walking by herself with no luggage, and from what Alianna said, it seems Maria knows this area pretty well, so she'll know back ways to get places. We should stick together, and hopefully we'll back before too long. I have water, snacks, Eleanor has the cellphone for you Kade, and I also have pepper spray and a first aid kit, just in case." 

"Thanks Jack I wouldn't have thought of the pepper spray or first aid kit." 

Alianna said, "I hope we won't have to use the first aid kit, but it was smart of you to grab it. What's the pepper spray for?" 

Kade said, "To spray at someone if they're attacking you or trying to hurt you in any way, you just have to be careful to try not to get any on yourself, because it hurts." With that, the group got up, Sumi and Nancy said good luck, in their own ways, and Jack, Kade, and Alianna went to the front to find Eleanor and go look for Maria.

Maria was walking down a familiar dirt road, one that she'd walked down many times, and taken the bus down to get to the train station, or other places. The first building she'd run into had been a farm with the town name, Memonken, on the sign at the front. Luckily Memonken was next to Toprocks, and the train station was on the outskirts of the city, so it wouldn't take her too long to get there and see if she could find another door, or something, even though it would take longer than usual because she wanted to avoid main roads dressed as she was and alone with no good reason for walking instead of taking the bus. She really hoped a door would be there in the bookstore, and irrationally, she hoped that Alianna would come find her, even though she knew you couldn't control the doors, and Alianna wouldn't have any idea where she'd ended up, and then there was the problem of both of them getting back. It only surprised her a tiny that she was hoping Alianna would come, because she'd grown incredibly close to Alianna and had gotten used to her being around, in a general sense in the three months they had been dating. Maria was so lost in thought she almost didn't hear the footsteps behind her until they were very close.  
Maria whirled around to find three middle aged white men right behind her, all of whom were smiling in a slightly disconcerting way. 

The one on the left said "What's up, darling? Where're you off to?" and the one on the left asked "You need a ride?"

Maria shook her head, and tried to dart away, but the guy in the middle reached over and grabbed her left wrist, yanking her back hard and forcing her to grit her teeth to stop the pained sound from escaping her lips.  
The man holding her wrist said quietly, "Why don't you let us give you a ride to wherever you're going, so we can make sure you're safe." 

Maria took a very quiet, slow deep breath and then said, "I think I'll be safer on my own where I can take care of myself, thanks", and while they looked surprised for half a second she drove her knee up into the groin of the man holding her and wrenched her wrist away as quickly as she could before sprinting down the road and then turning and running into the tall cornfield on the side of the road. She wanted to stop and see if she could do anything about her throbbing wrist, or come up with some kind of plan, but she knew she couldn't afford to stop for even a second, and she was very lucky that she knew this area so well, so she would be less likely to get lost, even when running in a blind panic without any real sense of where she was going, except in the direction she had been trying to go, and away from the men. Well, right now her first goal was getting to the other side of the cornfield where it would be much harder for the men to find or track her. She hadn't been paying much attention before, so she was surprised when she came out of the cornfield to find herself being stared at by several farmers moving a small herd of cows. Maria inclined her head at them and tried to force a smile on her face, and got out of the way of the cows and continued on her way. She might have been able to ask the farmers and whoever lived in that house if she could hide, and they might have said yes, but she knew she looked pretty strange, and this place was the first farm on the other side of the cornfield from where she had gone in, so the three men were guaranteed to look here very soon. 

 

The three of them, Jack, Alianna, and Kade walked along the dirt road that was the only non-major road leading to the Topeka train station, and every time they came to a house, Jack went up and rang the doorbell or knocked on the door and asked if they had seen anyone who looked like Maria: about 5 feet tall with long dark brown hair and blue eyes wearing a light jacket and baggy pants, but they didn’t have any luck. After walking for a long time, Kade noticed a house rising above and behind the cornfields, and they all made their way toward it, thinking that maybe Maria had paralleled the road, but not traveled on it. All three quickly made their way across the street, directly toward the house, and started to weave through the cornfield without damaging the corn or trampling it too much. Almost immediately after they started walking through the corn Kade said, “Everyone stop for a second, I thought I heard something.”  
Everyone stopped moving and once the corn around them had stopped rustling, they all heard an almost continuous rustle to the right, closer to the far edge of the corn that sounded exactly like the sounds they had been making when they moved, but faster. Alianna had a feeling and called out, “Hello, is someone there?”

The rustling stopped, and Alianna said cautiously, “My name is Alianna and I promise my friends and I aren’t trying to catch you.”  
There was a pause and then a small, familiar voice asked, “Alianna, is that really you?”

“Yes, Maria, it’s me, I came to find you.”

There was more rustling and a very nervous looking Maria appeared and flung her arms around Alianna and then winced. Alianna carefully put her arms around her girlfriend and pulled her close.  
“Mar, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

Maria, who had her face buried in Alianna’s chest mumbled something that Alianna didn’t catch, so Alianna gently pushed Maria’s shoulders back so she could see her girlfriend’s face. Maria looked scared and tense and pale and Alianna’s heart was creeping up her throat as she asked “Maria, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Maria said, quietly, but less timidly than before, “I hurt my wrist, and possibly my shoulder, the left one. A couple guys tried to grab me on the road and one of them wrenched my wrist, and then I hurt it more getting away from them.”

“I’m sorry Mar. You’re going to be just fine, we’ll get you somewhere safe and get your wrist seen to.”

Maria gave Alianna a hug and seemed to actually notice Kade and Jack for the first time.  
Kade smiled at Maria and said “Hi Maria, I’m Kade, and this is Jack. We’ve also been through doors and came back here. We’re at a school for other people who also went through doors, to help them readjust to Earth, and the US, without forgetting our experiences wherever we were. Alianna came and asked for our help, and here we are.”

Jack said, “I studied with a doctor when I went through my door, would you like me to quickly look at your wrist?”

“Yes, please, but quickly, if you can.”

“Of course. Would you like some water as well, or something to eat? We have both.”

“Yes please, that would be wonderful.”

“Oh, and Kade, can you call Eleanor and ask her to come pick us up if she can?” Jack asked.

“I was just about to do that.”

Jack pulled out a bottle of water and a granola bar and handed them to Maria, and then donned gloves before taking Maria’s wrist in her hand and running her fingers all over it.

“It’s probably sprained, but not that badly from the look of things. You said your shoulder also hurts?”

“Just a bit,” Maria said, but she eased her jacket off her left shoulder anyway and let Jack have a look.

“It’s not dislocated, that’s good, but there does seem to be some swelling. I’ll give it a proper look when we get back to the school.”

Jack pulled out stretchy bandages from the first aid kit and wrapped up Maria’s wrist, saying “This will have to do for now, until I can examine it properly. Just try not to move it too much.”

“Ok, thanks Jack.”

Jack smiled and Kade said, stepping back to the group, “Eleanor’ll be here soon. Do you need anything else Maria?”

Maria smiled at Alianna, and the two others and shook her head, “I’m fine for now.”

“Mar, what happened?” Alianna looked worried, and the expression didn’t go away as Maria explained what had happened since she accidentally went through the door that she thought was the storeroom in the bookstore.

 

The car ride back to the school is mostly taken up by Jack, Kade, and occasionally Eleanor explaining to Maria, and to a lesser degree Alianna, what the school is and what it does, and by Kade and Jack talking about their doors.  
When they get back to the school, Jack hustles Maria and Alianna down to her room while Kade goes to get some hot chocolate for Maria, even though it’s warm out. Once Maria is seated on the table, Jack unwraps the bandage, has Maria roll up her sleeve, and does a much more thorough, and more painful, examination of her wrist.

“It’s a moderate sprain, I’m going to put a brace on it, and try not to move it too much, but it should heal just fine, in about three to four weeks. Take some painkillers if it hurts, but the brace should help with the pain.”

“Why do you have braces for if people sprain things?”

“Because it’s very clean down here, and one of the students has a past wrist injury that flares up sometimes, but she doesn’t need to go to the doctor for that, so we keep some around.”

Kade came down the stairs, saying “Sorry it took so long, but I have hot chocolate for you Maria, if you want. And not to rush you or stress you out, but I’m assuming Alianna has a plan to get you both home?”

Maria gratefully accepted the hot chocolate from Kade as Alianna replied, ‘Yep, I have a plan. Mar, if you want, I can activate it now, though I’m not sure how long it will take the door to appear.” 

“Door? I thought you couldn’t control doors?”

“There’s a special door in this one town on Wyrmferr that can be controlled, that’s how I ended up where you came out on Earth, and if I press the center dot in this ink design, then a door back home will appear at some point soon, near where I am.”

“Oh, wow!!” said Jack, Kade, and Maria simultaneously, which made Alianna smile.

Alianna then said, “Kade, could I talk to you for a sec?”

“Of course, is everything ok?”

“Everything’s fine, I just have a question for you.”

Alianna and Kade went off into the corner and Alianna very quietly said to Kade, “If you wanted to come back with me and Maria, and live somewhere where people will accept you the way you are more than people seem to on Earth, no offense, I’m sure that would be fine.”

Kade smiled a sweet, almost sad smile and said, “Alianna, thank you so much for the offer, but I’ve made a life here, and I don’t fancy starting over again, and I’d miss Eleanor, and she’ll need me, in the future. The offer means a lot to me, but I think I’ll stick with what I’ve got here.”

“I mostly expected you to want to stay, but I thought I’d ask anyway.”

Alianna and Kade walked back over to join Jack and Maria, and the latter asked, “Is everything ok?” 

Kade replied, “I’m trans, and Alianna asked me if I wanted to come back with you to Wyrmferr, where people are more excepting, but I’ve got a life here now, and don’t really feel like uprooting it again, though I really appreciate the offer.”

“Oh, ok.”

Alianna then asked, “Maria, do you want me to signal the gate now or wait a bit?”

“If Jack and Kade don’t mind, I would love it if you would signal it now.”

“I don’t mind,” said Jack and Kade said, “Me neither, but Alianna, the clothes you came in are still back in my room.”

“Oh, I’ll go change and signal the door then, and I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

Jack piped up, “Maria, if you don’t mind, I would love to hear your impressions of Wyrmferr as someone who was born on Earth.”

“Of course, Jack,” replied Maria, and pulled Alianna down into a quick hug before releasing her to go with Kade to get her clothes.

Maria talked about Wyrmferr, and Jack talked a bit about the Moors, and a little while later, someone came pelting down the stairs, and Alianna raced in, back in her normal for her clothes, and said, “Maria, the door’s here already.”

“Oh wow, that was fast”, Maria said, surprised.

“Yeah.” 

Maria and Alianna both shook hands with Jack and thanked her and Alianna gave Jack the compass necklace which had directed her to Eleanor’s school, which Jack tried to refuse, but Alianna insisted, since there was more than one necklace, and it was a bit of real magic. Jack smiled at that and accepted the necklace gratefully.

Maria and Alianna raced upstairs and found that Kade had gathered everyone Alianna had met while she was on Earth and goodbyes and hugs were exchanged, and right before they left, Maria slipped off her coat and handed it to Kade.

“I want you to have this, as a thank you and a reminder, and because you are wonderful and deserve something beautiful to wear that you didn’t have to make yourself.”

Kade blushed a bit and he swiped at his eyes and said, “Thank you so much Maria, it’s so beautiful, I love it, and I’ll always remember you two.”  
Kade hugged Maria again, and Maria and Alianna ran outside to go through the door back home before it disappeared, waving at everyone and shouting “Goodbye!!” as they opened the door and stepped through to home.


End file.
